Management, Social Work and Change by Elizabeth Harlow John Lawler

Author:Elizabeth Harlow, John Lawler [Elizabeth Harlow, John Lawler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138733817
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Management and Seniority in the Workforce Studies

The Workforce Studies confirmed the predominance of women in each type of job namely manager, field social work, residential work and home care but showed variation in the degree of predominance. In England, for example, women comprised 86 per cent of the total workforce, 78 per cent of field social workers, 85 per cent of residential workers, 96 per cent of home care workers yet only 65 per cent of managers (Balloch et al., 1999).

Ginn examined the work histories of respondents since their first job in social care to explore the influence of gender on occupational attainment. She created the concept of ‘seniority’ as a broader category than manager to identify those staff who had reached a position of managerial responsibility within their field of work. This category included team leaders and senior social workers, home care organisers and managers, and officers in charge and managers in residential homes (Ginn et al., 1997). Seniority will be discussed within the occupational categories of social work, home care and residential work and central and strategic managers.

Table 5.1 shows differences between women and men in seniority in all geographical areas. For example in England, 38 per cent of men field social work staff were senior compared to only 12 per cent of women. In Northern Ireland, 41 per cent of men field social work staff were senior compared with 20 per cent of women. Central and strategic managers with responsibility for planning and managing the agency as a whole are included as a separate column and are shown as a percentage of all staff. In England, only 1 per cent of women are represented at this level compared with 8 per cent of men. There are similar proportions in Scotland to England and in Northern Ireland, 20 per cent of men are represented at central and strategic level compared with only 4 per cent of women staff.

Having established the differences between women and men in the achievement of seniority, other factors were explored which were expected to be associated with promotion in social services. These included age, professional and educational qualifications and hours of work in the current job. Past employment patterns, namely age of entry into social care and social services, length of service, number of jobs held, number of years spent in full and part-time working and length of career breaks were also examined. Logistic regression was used to identify the statistically significant factors associated with the probability of being in a senior post when all these variables were taken into consideration. This analysis was undertaken separately for each of the occupational categories in all three study areas (see Ginn and Buglass, 1996; Ginn et al., 1996; Ginn et al., 1997 for details). Before discussing these findings, we look briefly at the differences between women and men in qualifications, hours of work and career breaks.

Table 5.1 Percentages of staff who were senior by occupational category and gender

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